In-car Marketing Is Coming, And This Is Why We’re Not Pleased

There’s absolutely nothing in the world quite so negative as advertising. The majority of us just accept it as a fact of life, which it is. For some of us there’s constantly a little grumble of annoyance at the back of our minds whenever we’re required to tolerate somebody aiming to sell us something.

On one hand, a sensible choice needs to be that anyone selling anything has to make customers familiar with exactly what’s readily available. You cannot constantly rely on buyers to actively seek you out. Advertising is reasonable enough, on that basis.

Roadside signboards, radio ads, TV ads and printed ads are a passive attempt to engage with individuals with cash to spend. You don’t have to pay attention if you do not want to, even though lots of individuals do.

No one can argue that you do not in some cases gain useful details from advertising. It readies to understand, for instance, that there’s a vehicle parts store half an hour’s drive from your home that you didn’t learn about, and never ever would have known about if not for advertising.

On the other hand, the age of connected devices has brought with it a very different type of marketing. Marketing helps keep publications like this running, so it would be mighty hypocritical of us to call it all bad.

This week we discovered of a system built by an American company called Telenav. It will allow advertisers to pipe their commercials straight to your cars and truck’s media screen when the vehicle is stationary. Adverts you never requested and never ever agreed to accept. This, we have a problem with.

Adverts will be provided either under threat of financial penalties if you do not ‘select’ to enjoy them, or with a bribe-shaped discount on the expense of your connected car services if you do view them. It depends on which way you want to take a look at it. A Telenav spokesperson said:

” In return for accepting ads in lorries, motorists take advantage of access to connected services without membership costs, along with new driving experiences that come from the highly-targeted and pertinent offers delivered based on info originating from the car.”

With innovation already able to inspect which method your face is turned and which way your eyes are looking, the car could know whether you’re seeing these commercials or not. It might even pause them if you avert, or refuse to let you access the net till you have actually watched the entire advert(s).

Forgive me if I’m being over-dramatic, however that sounds like being held to ransom in your own automobile. Your car is your personal space. Your choice of design alone is a reflection of who you are, even if the automobile itself is unmodified.

Now advertisers wish to violate those personal boundaries and stick their hungry mouths in where we do not desire them. They don’t care whether you wish to be left alone, or that it’s your personal space. They wish to turn every personal automobile into a method to force you to watch their sales pitch.

To this we say no, thank you. Advertising on public transport is level playing field, but not in people’s private cars and trucks. We do not want marketing in our vehicles. Not now, and never.